B. Holcomb & The Greatest Hits Album

Before I get into the quiz boys and girls, I gotta get something off my mind.

Imagine (for those of you that appreciate quality music), that your favorite artist has been on a hiatus from their last album that has lasted what seems longer than the Chicago Cubs' last appearance in the World Series. Suddenly, your friend sends you an e-mail with an embedded link, with the subject line "thought you'd find this interesting" You open the link to an article, and it unvails that (Insert fav artist here) is dropping a new album. You rejoice...only to read further that the album will be a greatest hits album...

If you don't know by now, after many months of speculation, my favorite group (The Roots) has signed w/ President Carter and the Def Jam label. Initially I was pleased w/ this accomplishment as I still believe after 15 years in the game, the Roots still don't get their props. You can imagine my excitement when I learned that the Roots will be dropping 3 albums in the span of 4 months. To my suprise, 2 of those months are greatest hits joints....

I HATE GREATEST HITS ALBUMS!!!!

Don't get it twisted. Greatest hits complilations serve their purpose. They get the casual fan more involved in the music. I mean hell, I didn't turn into a fan of the Temptations by hearing "Pappa Was a Rolling Stone" one time, and watching the Temptations mini-series on CBS (although I still laugh at the David Ruffin line "AIN'T NOBODY COME TO SEE YOU OTIS"...and the answer is yes, I own the DVD). But I digress...

Greatest Hits Albums (GHAs) are just another hustle by the record company. Contrary to popular belief, the decision to release GHAs comes from the record label and NOT the artist. (Yes, this is why when those of you pick up a GHA, some of the songs on there are wack). More times than not, the GHA will come out w/o the artist even knowing about it! This strategy is an insult to not only the artist, but the true fans of the artist as well. Because when you release a GHA, your only demographic becomes people who say "Yo, I've been sleeping on this (artist) for years man...now's my chance to get back in the game." So hey, maybe there is hope for Yazarah, Little Brother & Ralphael Saadiq's solo career...

...that is unless you prefer to download all your music, which is also killing "True music", but that's another topic...on to the quiz!

Bringing you more heat from his hands than Liu Kang,

B. Holcomb

P.S. The Roots' 7th album entitled Game Theory is scheduled to arrive in stores sometime in Feb 06

P.P.S., Yes I know the Roots' last album came out on July 2004. And no I'm not an advocate of the artist that "drops an album once a year for my fan's sake" as Ludacris once spoke.